I keep a large corkboard leaning against the wall in front of my television set, with fabric swatches, inspiration photos and pattern pictures pinned all over it. This Liberty pattern – “Dancing Ladies,” from the Liberty Rocks art collection, had been pinned to the board since about November. Soon after that, the BurdaStyle book came out and I found myself admiring this skirt for its range of options, its simplicity, and its sparing use of fabric. A pattern like this would let me have a skirt with plenty of fabric left over for future experimentation. The overskirt/underskirt combo is awesome and allows plenty of future modifications (even without all of the examples in the book) and I always love a touch of lace. The “accessorize” challenge sealed the deal, because blue is a favorite of mine and my favorite vintage hat is a blue velvet beret from the 1940s. This synergy of means, motive and opportunity gave me a great “aha!” moment – I can handle this whole Sew Weekly Challenge thing. I had honestly been unsure until that very second, and then the ideas started flowing. I’m going to make it after all!

Obviously I wanted to recreate the ultimate “make it after all” moment with a great Mary Tyler Moore homage, but my photographer (my mother, who laughed at the suggestion in the first place) sucks at this game. So, there is a hat (or to quote the great old Jewish joke, “I had a hat!”) but I’ve already thrown it up into the air, missed it, laughed about it, and then my mother remembered to take the photo.

Five times.

Just another word about this outfit and this day. Accidentally-on-purpose, I’m wearing this outfit on the second day of my mom’s I’ve-already-lost-count-it’s-been-so-many round of chemo. I knew it would make her laugh. All of my accessories (ironically, not including the hat) are things that she has given to me: my antique Trifari brooch, my home-shopping-network “antique style” watch, my fleur-de-lis necklace, and my boots that we picked out together on a shopping trip.

As soon as I saw the title in my Google reader, I was so excited. I super <3 MTM and am inspired (both fashion and attitude-wise) by her and that show all the time! I love the outfit. Good work, and many godo thoughts to your mom.

About the Sew Weekly

The Sew Weekly began as Mena Trott's attempt to document the process of sewing all of her own clothes in 2010. In 2011, four other contributors (Debi Fry, Adey Lim, Veronica Darling & Sarah Gabbart) joined her and for 52 weeks, they sewed based on a particular weekly theme. In 2012, The Sew Weekly became a much larger group blog with over 130 contributors sewing along each week.